The objective of this project is to undertake a comparative analysis of changes in rates of violent crimes in all data-recording nations for the period 1900 to 1970. This project is made possible by a unique data file containing data on violent crimes in a large number of nations. This data file has been in the process of collection for two years. First, a simple aggregation of the rates of violent crimes for all nations in the sample will be done for all years, and all decades, represented in the data file. This procedure will allow a ranking of all nations in terms of their relative incidences and increases in violent crimes, and a measure of how stable these rankings have been over time will be obtained. Second, an effort will be made to identify structural, economic, or other variables which discriminate high-increase nations from others. Third, multi-dimensional and factor analytic methods will be used to attempt to identify patterns of covariation among the entire sample of nations, to learn what nations and types of nations experience common or correlated trends in violent crime rate changes. Fourth, an effort will be made to determine the effect of events like recessions and wars on various types of violent crimes. This will be done by comparing the rates of affected nations and unaffected or control nations.